THE MONSTER / Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation - 1925

It's time to check out this silent film starring Lon Chaney as a mad doctor who has taken over an asylum with the help of his demented pals! This is basically a comedy and is well worth checking out, Chaney is extra creepy in this one. I got this copy off TCM.

So, here's a nice sound clip from this great little flick for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our monster in a bottle, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a taste of... THE MONSTER!

The story starts with this weird looking character sitting in a tree who ends up causing a car accident near an asylum in the middle of the night. Nice guy!

I put this still up because this nice looking scene is obviously a matte painting.

Here's popular co-star Johnny Arthur as a clerk who wants to be a detective, so, gets a mail order diploma which includes some cuffs and a tin star. Johnny was Darla's dad in THE LITTLE RASCALS and specialized in timid or whiny characters.

This is Lon as the super weirdo, Dr. Ziska. Johnny, Betty, the girl he likes and her beau end up stranded at the asylum at night, Ziska tells them that he is in charge of the facility.

And, this is Ziska's lil' helper... No, nothing fishy going on around here!

Then, Betty has some strange adventures, she's almost crushed in her bed by a huge press and later is attacked by arms coming out of her mattress, like in PHANTASM.

Johnny and the gang discover the real head of the asylum and others in the cellar!

In a wild and crazy scene, Johnny walks along the electrical wires trying to get away from Ziska's other helper, the dude that causes the accidents.

It becomes obvious that Ziska is totally out of his freakin' mind when he captures Betty and prepares to experiment on her for his nefarious reasons.

Here's an excellent portrait of Lon as Dr. Ziska!

Johnny is the real hero, he uses the clothes of the helper to fool Ziska and ties him up in the electric chair instead of the intended victim!

Ziska's helper has flipped the switch on the electric chair and discovers to his dismay that he's wrongly fried the doctor instead, a happy ending!!

We're back tomorrow with more from The Dungeon!

THE GIRL HUNTERS - Mickey Spillane IS Mike Hammer! (1963)

Well, some of us made it to 2015, now let's just see if we an get through it! Life ain't getting any easier so it's good to have tough guy, good guy around like Mikey Spillane when you're in a pinch!

This title card tells it all! It's a Colorama Feature, but "The Girl Hunters" is a black and white film! All future bets are off, and anything goes from here on out, and justifiably so! The snappy title theme was created by Phillip (Space Master X-7, Weasel While You Work) Green! Phillip also composed the music for 15 episodes of "The Huckleberry Hound Show, and 41 episodes of "Quick Draw McGraw!"

Indeed he is! Indeed he is! This is the reason I wanted to see "The Girl Hunters" so much! It's not often that you get to see a real writer, not an actor, acting out his own character the way he wrote it!

Frank Morrison Spillane was a rough and tumble guy, and his main character Mike Hammer was just as tough or tougher! Here's a couple of quick facts you might not know about Mickey Spillane!  He started his career writing super hero comic books before he starting writing novels! His books have sold over 200 million copies world wide! When he got out of the Army, Mickey worked with the Barnum and Baily circus as a trampoline artist, a knife thrower, and the guy who got shot out of a cannon! He worked undercover for the FBI! Later in life, he became a Jehovah's Witness!

"The Girl Hunters" starts off with private detective Mike Hammer just starting to come out of a seven year drinking binge caused by the mysterious disappearance of his secretary/lover Velda! Even after he stops drinking, he still always has time for a Pabst Blue Ribbon or two!

Mike Hammer's got good taste in cars! This T-Bird looks so perfect that it looks like a Matchbook toy car!

And what do you know? Here's the Barbie Doll! Shirley Eaton two years before "Goldfinger" as Laura Knapp, the wife of a recently murdered Senator! Mike Hammer has some hard questions for her!

A lot of the time he's delivering his lines, Mickey has a pained expression on his face like this!

A lot of the people that Mike Hammer knows start dying off....

....One at a time!

Great bar scene! So what are you doing here Gringo? You are not welcome here!

I'd like you to meet my little brother Ice-P!

Uh, No thanks, you answered my questions just fine!

There's always time to have another beer! In real life, Mickey Spillane didn't drink any hard liquor or smoke, but he would have an occasional beer! Mike Hammer, on the other hand, was a different story!

Mickey/Mike has a pensive moment!

Mike and Laura have been getting along pretty swell, but just before they are ready to go to dinner, Mike finds a shotgun with the barrel shoved down into the dirt of a large potted plant! He explains to Laura in no uncertain terms, that if the shotgun was plugged up with dirt, it would explode in her pretty face, and that would be it!

Well, I'm sorry, I'm just a girl!

Mike Hammer is so pissed off that he cancels their dinner date! He doesn't want to eat with somebody that stupid!

Down at the local news stand while picking up his favorite magazine, it hits Mike in the face like a mackerel, and he puts a whole bunch of pieces of the puzzle together in his mind!

After almost getting killed, it's time to head back and talk to Laura with a whole new set of questions!

Laura's got a different answer for Mike this time!

While it's not as good as "Kiss Me Deadly" by a long shot, no matter what, it's fun to see an author act out a character he created on his own terms! Mickey Spillane passed away in the year 2006 at the age of 88, and he'll never be replaced!  It's kind of hard to imagine him in this last shot, walking up to the door and offering up a copy of "The Watchtower!"

THE WAR IN SPACE / Toho Company - 1977

It's time to take a trip into space to fight a war with invaders from Venus! Other movies involving Venus include QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE, STRANGER FROM VENUS, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS and FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS.

Here's a sound clip from this flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our grounded space ship, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's... THE WAR IN SPACE!

The story starts with a meeting at the space command, invaders from Venus are on Earth and have started attacking certain locations... Cool photo!

The good guys chase down an invader and find this weird mask he was wearing!

Professor Takigawa has constructed a special space craft, the Gohten, to confront the numerous little attacking flying saucers from Venus.

The crew gets a transmission from the decked out Venusian leader while they're in space.

Destination Venus!.. The Gohten barely makes it safely to the surface of Venus after a wild ride through the hot sulfuric atmosphere!

Here's the token American fighter, Jimmy, as he zeroes in on the Venusian command center.

This is pretty weird, they fire the rockets out of what looks like the giant bullet cylinder of a revolver! Photo shows one rocket just appearing before it streaks out of the chamber.

The guys from Earth explore the surface and eventually find the command center, actually a spaceship protected by a pink force field.

Is this a surreal picture or what?!.. Welcome to X-ville!!

Check it out, they even throw in this big old bull monster guard for fun! Wheeeee!....

Well anyway, the two ships battle it out and it looks like defeat for the Gohten. But, it has an ace up its nose, a super bomb that can destroy a planet! It strikes the Venusian ship and it slams into a volcano! Game over, man!

The Gohten and crew safely make it into space just before Venus explodes to oblivion from the super bomb... You know, WTF?!! I guess we didn't really need that many planets!

Tune in Wednesday when we're back with more insanity, here at The Dungeon!